All aboard the Tram Experience

The folks at the capital’s tourist office Visitbrussels are always dreaming up novel experiences for visitors. Nowhere have their interventions been more imaginative than in the realm of gastronomy. For, not content to simply point you in the direction of the city’s best restaurants, Visitbrussels has wined and dined you at an altitude of 50 metres over downtown Brussels; it has brought you regional specialities from the world over, in the context of the annual Eat Brussels festival; and it is currently presenting a mouth-watering Nordic feast... on the tram.

For the third consecutive year Visitbrussels’ custom-modified tram, the Tram Experience —complete with two dining rooms, a kitchen and, yes, a toilet — has plied the rails, departing from Place Poelaert and making a two-hour tour past Place Flagey, Montgomery, the Tram Museum and Avenue Louise.

This season sees the inauguration of a brand new concept: a different fixed menu signed by two international chefs every six weeks. It’s the world on your plate. The late-summer cycle showcased cuisine from the French foodie capital Lyon.

Currently tram diners discover a Nordic menu created by two of the region’s top chefs, Matti Jämsen and Gustav Trägårdh. Jämsen, of Helsinki’s sumptuous GW Sundmans, proposes a trio of finger-food starters (whose centrepiece is a morsel of raw shrimp with chive dressing) and a main dish of two cuts of lamb prepared in radically different styles. In-between, Gothenburg’s Trägårdh inserts a delicious halibut plate. Finally it is Trägårdh who finishes the experience with a baked chocolate cream dessert, inspired by his grandmother’s recipe.

The wines are paired and provided by specialists at Belgian supermarket giant Delhaize. Surprise, Scandinavian cuisine goes well with French, Chilean and Slovenian grapes!

The current Scandinavian menu runs until the end of November, when a team of Catalonian chefs take over to represent the sunny south. Then, in early 2015, the Tram Experience goes transatlantic with a comprehensive North American feast spanning all three NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) signatories.

The Experience sallies forth but nine times a week. There is a single dinner service on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; two dinner departures on Friday and Saturday evenings; and a single lunch service on Sunday. The crew has Mondays off. With a capacity of 34, space is indeed limited so we suggest you make your online reservations well in advance.